ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Gov. David Paterson on Wednesday declined to join other top Democrats who are calling for state Sen. Hiram Monserrate to resign over his misdemeanor conviction for assaulting his girlfriend.

In his first public comments on last week’s conviction, Paterson said domestic violence remains a major concern, but said he would wait for a special Senate committee’s report on Monserrate’s case.

“The public outrage that has happened in this particular case typifies the fact that the public is finally awakened,” Paterson said. He noted domestic violence is a serious problem, with a million women statewide calling 911 annually, and said it is “one of the most horrible crimes” in society.

“The person you love the most is also the person you fear the most. That’s what the backdrop is for this,” Paterson said. “I’m glad that the Senate has put together a committee. … I think we should allow that committee to act. … I don’t want to taint this process.”

Monserrate, a 42-year-old Queens Democrat, says he’ll cooperate with the committee, which may also try to interview his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo.

Monserrate was acquitted of a felony that would have cost his Senate seat automatically. That charge involved a cut from a broken glass on Giraldo’s face that required 20 to 40 stitches. The couple said she was an accidentally hurt.

Justice William Erlbaum found Monserrate guilty of misdemeanor assault for injuring Giraldo as he dragged her through his building, as seen in surveillance camera footage. Supporters say he was trying to take an unwilling Giraldo to the hospital.

Monserrate has refused to resign. Democratic U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Joseph Crowley and five Democrats in the state Senate have said he should.

“There are many people getting involved who are speaking without knowledge of the facts without looking at the verdict,” defense attorney Joseph Tacopina said.

Monserrate could face up to a year in jail at sentencing Dec. 4, though Tacopina said he considers jail unlikely.

The special committee has five Democratic members, and Republicans on Wednesday named Sens. Andrew Lanza, John Flanagan, James Alesi and Catharine Young to the panel. The group now has five women members.

Sen. Ruben Diaz, a Bronx Democrat, noted that none of the Democrats’ five Latino senators was named to the committee. He doubted that any of the four Republican members could be impartial. He said the committee’s goal is to punish Monserrate for briefly joining in a coalition with Republicans that tilted majority control in the chamber.

On Monday, Diaz, a minister, said white lawmakers’ calls to oust Monserrate were racist.

Sen. Neil Breslin, an Albany Democrat and former prosecutor who said Monserrate should resign, said Diaz’s race comments were “an embarrassment to the Latino community. It’s a suggestion that it’s OK to beat a woman if you’re Latino.”

Diaz said Breslin and the others can’t be protecting Giraldo’s rights “by calling her a liar” and “destroying her reputation” when she said it was an accident.